NHRA Friday: Sitting Fifth, WJ Looks to Improve on Saturday in Dallas

Contact: Jon G. Knapp
									TMG Sports Marketing 
									Phone: (704) 662-3121
										     jgknapp@tmgsports.net	

Friday Qualifying Results		

Sitting Fifth, WJ Looks to Improve on Saturday in Dallas


Event: 18th annual O'Reilly Fall Nationals 
Location:  Texas Motorplex
       Ennis, TX
Day/Date: Saturday October 10, 2003

Qualifying for the O'Reilly Fall Nationals got underway on Friday at the Texas Motorplex, with racers in all three professional categories looking to take advantage of the dry weather in the Dallas area.

Coming off their exciting win in Reading, PA, last weekend Warren Johnson and GM Performance Parts Grand Am racing team looked to continue their strong performance.  Taking advantage of the cooler evening conditions in Ennis, Johnson posted a 6.862-second, 202.11 mph pass to place fifth at the qualifying midpoint.  

Although many would be pleased with this opening effort, Johnson immediately began to search for ways to improve on his final two attempts on Saturday."

"We switched the short block in our GM Performance Parts Grand Am after Reading, simply because the other one had been together since before Brainerd, and we were afraid we'd throw the rods out of it.  Although we don't think this engine is as good as the previous one, we'd rather give up a little performance than trash a short block or an entire engine.  

"Right now, it's not spinning the tires hard enough at the starting line.  We're fairly confident being able to make up for the loss of power with changes in the gearing, so we should be all right.  Given the proper circumstances, we should be able to go 6.84 or 6.85.  It's just a matter of adapting the car to the conditions."

# # #